Understanding Types of Shutter

Fujifilm cameras offer different kinds of shutter operations. Learn which are best for different situations.
Recorded on Fujifilm X-H1 mirrorless camera with XF56mmf1.2 R lens.
Lighting by Fotodiox SkyFiller Wings 36inch RGB LED panel.

[@PhotoToasty]

Thanks for the clear and concise explanations!

[@jbivphotography]

Awesome video and explanation of the shutters! The addition of the electronic shutter really gives photographers so many options while capturing moments!

[@JohnChubbSr]

Thanks for all your videos. They are very helpful!

[@FujifilmUSACameras]

Thank you for the love!

[@Master-Grammar]

Perfect explanation, and just in time, as I had been finagling with my XT4's settings today.

[@sclogse1]

OUTSTANDING.

[@enjoythelittlethings3359]

Fantastic explanation !!! Thank you for this.

[@FujifilmUSACameras]

Thanks for the love!

[@tayeshotthat]

Awesome video

[@FeRmBot0118]

Thank you!

[@DameEdnaBrown]

Well explained

[@jimofmarseille]

Hello and thanks for the explainaton. I have a question : the X-H2 can go up to 1/180000s e-shutter but the sensor read out speed is 30ms, hos is it possible ? Thanks !

[@RedShiftedDollar]

Vibration seems like another consideration for electronic front curtain shutter. The motion of both the front curtain and back curtain create vibration that moves the camera slightly. With electronic first curtain, there is absolutely no vibration during the initiation of exposure, so shutter induced vibrations will not be present during the exposure duration. Only the closing of the back curtain will produce vibration and since this is at the conclusion of the exposure then it will have a negligible effect on the exposure itself.

[@davidthomas305]

I find these short videos of great value. Going Forward I would like to see videos on mor variation of flash on the X system. For example, macro flash, bounce and various options for diffusion. Also, how to optomize the X-T cameras for macro photography.

[@InWhoseOpinion]

How is the sensor scanned in mechanical shutter mode?

[@senior_ranger]

You seem to have forgotten the leaf shutter.

[@sclogse1]

No. Fuji doesn't sell them now. Or the focal plane shutter.

[@edwinov]

Thee ONE things that nobody talking about EFCS seems to adress is how it works EXACTLY. If you, like in this video, assume that ok, we start taking the picture with the sensor fully exposed and then yes, the mechanical shutter moves in to block the sensor then there is a difference in amount of light that the bottom and top parts of the sensor receive. It could ONLY work if the speed at which is mechanical shutter moves in is extremely closely correlated to when the lines of the sensor are being read. Let's compare the sensor and the light with a sheet of regular A4/Letter paper that we lie flat on the ground outside. Now imagine it's drizzling a bit, the paper is slowly getting wetter. Now I want get an indication of how much drizzle in total falls on the paper in say 10 seconds. I start measuring (=looking at wetness of paper) at t=0.0 seconds, at the same time I slowly move a big piece of cardboard (same size or bigger than the paper) from the top of the paper further and further down until after 10.0 seconds the cardboard is exactly covering the paper below it. CLEARLY the BOTTOM of the paper that has been exposed the longest to the drizzle will be wetter than the TOP of the paper that right after I started got covered first by the cardboard. In fact the distribution of drizzle will be a linear function of the distance to the bottom. The very same is true for the sensor in EFCS. It's all nice to hear the mechanical curtain moves in but that part of the sensor that gets covered LAST by it will have received MORE light. I have yet to see a satisfactory explanation in full detail of how EFCS works.

[@HaveIGotADeal4U]

While I am not 100 percent confident of the correctness of every aspect of my response, I think the mistake you are making is to assume that the sensor is recording across the entire frame at the same time. If that happened, then you are correct, as the exposure will increase in those pixels which take longer to be covered by the shutter curtain. Clearly that doesn't happen. CMOS sensors operate line by line and are always on when the camera is on (so recording continuously, which is why electronic viewfinders work). In simple terms, the recording process for the photo, when you press the shutter button, starts by resetting the pixels, draining them of residual electronic charge. This allows the start of the desired photographic exposure. After the required exposure time, the resulting electrical charge is drained (read) pixel line by pixel line and converted to a voltage which used by the camera processor to develop the raw digital data. Essentially, the sensor is scanned (ie rolling), rather than global (every pixel is lit at once). With a (fully) mechanical shutter, the first curtain drops, excluding light from the sensor. Pixels are reset behind the shutter (presumably this happens line by line). When the first curtain starts to open the pixels start collecting light and continue to do so until the second curtain closes (the exposure time). The pixels are then read and reset behind the second curtain, ready for the process to start again. With an EFCS, the process starts electronically, and then is stopped by the shutter curtain. The way I think this happens is that pixels are reset line by line in advance of the shutter curtain, which then blocks the light stopping the exposure. Thus the pixel reset 'wave front' proceeds down the sensor at the same speed as the shutter curtain, mimicing the first curtain of the fully mechanical shutter. The pixels are then read and reset behind the second curtain. The sychronisation of the shutter curtain and the pixel reset process is critical, and may be the reason why some earlier mirrorless cameras could not use EFCS at very fast shutter speeds. With electronic shutter, the reset and exposure process takes place line by line on the sensor without any mechanical curtain involvement. As I understand it, each line is reset, starts collecting photons, and then is read, progressively down the sensor. Essentially, the gap between the reset and the read process is the exposure time (set by the photographer). This line by line process takes a finite amount of time to cover the entire frame, meaning the exposure of the last line of the sensor takes place a small period of time after the exposure of the first line. In some sensors, it can take as much as 1/15s to traverse the sensor, which is what leads to the warping and other problems inherent in electronic shutters (the so-called rolling shutter effect), and makes them unsuitable for flash. Fortunately, with modern stacked sensors, the process is considerably faster, reducing rolling shutter effects to almost unobservable levels.

[@edwinov]

​@@HaveIGotADeal4UYou are basically saying what I said: "It could ONLY work if the speed at which is mechanical shutter moves in is extremely closely correlated to when the lines of the sensor are being read." This I think is equivalent to your "The sychronisation of the shutter curtain and the pixel reset process is critical". Sorry to bother you with a pet peeve of mine: you talk about "very fast shutter speeds". That's bad English. You can not have fast speeds. You can have a very fast shutter, or a very high speed shutter, but not a fast speed shutter. It's the shutter that's fast, not the speed. Likewise there are no expensive prices or warm temperatures. On topic again: I love electronic shutter for timelapse photography. Mostly static scenes, so no warping, just clouds drifting by or sea levels changing and it really saves your shutter. Look forward to upgrading my 5D3 to an EFCD camera some time.